First-year league pro on £80k complains about earning 'peanuts'

PETERBOROUGH UNITED chairman Darragh MacAnthony has hit back at Danny Lloyd’s claim he was earning “absolute peanuts” at the club - revealing the midfielder was on more than £80,000 a year in his first season in pro league football.

Lloyd today left the League One club to join National League outfit Salford City. Choosing to move from the third to fifth tier of English football is rare, although TGG was told by a source at Peterborough that the 26-year-old will be earning £4,000 a week at the Greater Manchester club.

Salford deny this is the case, saying the player will be on significantly less.

However, Lloyd today took to Twitter to dismiss accusations he was moving for money.

“I have never played football for money,” he replied to a Posh supporter. “I went to prove a point at Peterborough on absolute peanuts. I proved I was more than good enough for the EFL so do me a favour and don’t give me that when you don’t know me I give my all for your club.”

Hi John, for a start I have never played football for money, I went to prove a point at Peterborough on absolute peanuts, I proved I was more than good enough for the EFL so do me a favour and don’t give me that when you don’t know me I give my all for your club so give it a rest

This prompted MacAnthony to respond: “Imagine getting paid over £80k in your first year of playing professional league football and describing it as earning peanuts. Genuinely I’m shocked reading it.

“But then again nothing surprises me in football.”

Lloyd scored 13 goals for Posh last season, despite making only 25 starts. He had made a summer move there from National League side Stockport County after three seasons with AFC Fylde.

And this is where the story is perhaps not as straightforward as it seems. Lloyd is 26, so not a callow teenager making his first steps in football.

He also took a drop in living standards to go full-time with Peterborough, having previously had a good job with the waste management company Biffa.

In an interview in January, Lloyd said: “Selling bins, I also earned commission, I had a pension, I had my car paid for, I received a fuel allowance, I got a phone and a laptop – it was a really good job, I was a manager, and I enjoyed it.

“Meanwhile, I was playing for Stockport and being there added a couple of hundred quid a week to my wages. I could have stayed and have more disposable income than I have now as League One player.

"Here, my basic wage has increased but my bills have quadrupled; you find that the extra money you earn disappears very quickly. But this was never going to be an opportunity that I was going to pass up. I had to take it. I know I’d have regretted it forever otherwise.”

It should also be remembered that Peterborough signed him for free and have now sold him for a decent profit.